In the past, bone cancer treatment often required amputation to ensure radical cure, causing permanent disability. Today, 70-80% of cases can keep and preserve limbs. In particular, Vietnam has just successfully implemented artificial knee replacement for children with bone cancer, helping them avoid amputation and maintain normal leg development in the future, marking a turning point in the treatment of this disease in children.
The pain of disability of seriously ill children
Diagnosed with bone cancer when he was in 7th grade, Nguyen Hoang Tuan ( Thai Nguyen ) has undergone 2 leg amputation surgeries. Sharing with us in tears, his father said: “At first, my son came home from playing soccer complaining of leg pain. We thought he had been injured while playing soccer, so we took him to a local herbalist for massage.
More than a month later, the pain gradually increased with more frequency, taking him to the hospital but they could not diagnose the disease. We just thought that he had leg pain during puberty, so we were not too worried until one day the pain in his leg was unbearable, he cried a lot. We took him to Hanoi for examination and were shocked to receive the bad news that he had bone cancer. Because it was discovered at an advanced stage, Tuan had to have his leg amputated above the knee. At first, after chemotherapy, he was able to go back to school, although he had to have the support of his parents. But after a while, the cancer relapsed, the whole family was shocked when he was scheduled for a second surgery, amputating the remaining part of his thigh. Since then, his life has been closely linked to the hospital.
According to Dr. Hoang Tuan Anh, Head of the Department of Musculoskeletal Surgery, K Hospital, 80% of bone cancer in children occurs in the age group of 10-14. This is also a cancer that is difficult to detect in the early stages. With the initial symptoms of bone pain, occasional pain, many parents think that their children are lacking calcium during puberty, or in children who often play soccer and sports , it is easy to mistake leg pain due to falling or impact. Many children go to the hospital because of unusual swelling and pain around the shoulder joint and around the knee, without a specific cause, without fever. Some children have injuries such as playing sports, or daily activities, when they come to the clinic with symptoms of a broken bone (this group is less common), however, when taking an X-ray, a malignant lesion is detected.
At Xanh Pon General Hospital, each year there are about 50-60 cases of children coming for examination and diagnosed with bone cancer. Dr. Nguyen Trong Quynh, Head of the Pediatric Orthopedics Unit, said that primary bone cancer is often found during puberty and post-puberty, from 10-20 years old - this is the period when children grow rapidly in height, and malignant cell transformation in children is more common. Some cases have family factors such as father or mother having bone cancer, but this rate is very small. Previously, bone cancer in children was considered a disaster, often requiring amputation of limbs, greatly affecting the quality of life of children and becoming a haunting fear of permanent disability for children who are unfortunate enough to have the disease.
Another miracle of keeping children's legs
In the past 5 years, thanks to the development of medicine, the treatment of bone cancer has made many advances, doctors have performed surgery to preserve limbs for patients. According to Dr. Quynh, up to 70-80% of cases can keep and preserve limbs, meaning that instead of cutting off the bone with the tumor as before, surgery to remove the tumor, then reconstruct the bone defect and soft tissue to preserve the limb for children, bringing a better life for them.
Further progress in the treatment of bone cancer in children is that recently, doctors at K Hospital have implemented artificial knee replacement surgery with a growth mechanism for children with bone cancer. This is the latest method, first implemented in Vietnam, helping children with bone cancer not only preserve their limbs but also maintain normal leg development in the following years.
Having osteosarcoma bone cancer in the lower end of the femur - a malignant bone cancer commonly found in adolescents, KPM (10 years old, Dien Bien) came to K Hospital in a state of cortical bone erosion, periosteum disruption and soft tissue spread. If not treated promptly, he would face obstacles in his life. Before surgery, M was treated with adjuvant chemotherapy to shrink the tumor. Doctors also considered that because he was only 10 years old, if he only replaced the artificial joint normally, it would certainly affect the ability to grow in length of the left femur, causing him to have a "left leg shorter than the right leg" in the future. Therefore, he underwent surgery to replace the artificial knee joint with a growth mechanism, which means cutting off a 16cm long damaged femur segment, preserving as much healthy tissue as possible and placing a growth knee joint. Doctors said that after rehabilitation exercises, he would return to normal life. In the future, he will have surgery to adjust the length of the artificial joint to match the growth length of his right leg.
According to Dr. Hoang Tuan Anh, this method marks a step forward in the treatment of bone cancer with limb preservation in Vietnam. The most important thing is to preserve the function and future development of children. However, the cost of joint replacement surgery is very high and is not covered by health insurance, which is a difficulty and challenge for many families with children with this disease. In the case of child M, in order to have surgery, K Hospital connected with benefactors to cover the entire cost of the surgery. In the future, the hospital will advise the Ministry of Health to work with the health insurance agency to include the cost of artificial knee replacement surgery with a growth mechanism in the list of health insurance payments, helping children increase their access to treatment.
Source: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/tre-em-mac-ung-thu-xuong-khong-con-phai-cat-cut-chan-i776930/
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